PRESS QUOTES

“truly a succession of highlights”

Enchanting new beginningWith Mozart’s Zauberflöte the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen had its enthusiastically applauded reopening. And the production became truly a succession of highlights. How difficult it can be, to understand the different levels and even intentional changes of style of this ingenious Mozart opera, and to transform this into a fantastic entity, is affirmed by many productions. In this case, Gelsenkirchen’s chief conductor and stage director and set designer Michiel Dijkema are completely on the same level: Mozart’s music has to define everything. Nothing on stage stands in its way and, because of this staging, the music shows itself as innovative, yes, excitingly modern even. Everything is to the point, the costumes full of contrast, the brave interpretation of initiation rituals, the complex of humour and drama, of lightness and profoundness. Everyone dedicates oneself to the performance with great talent, with enormous enthusiasm and with heart and soul.

Heinz-Albert HeindrichsRuhr Nachrichten20 December 2009

“witty, fantastic, brilliant”

No incense for SarastroWitty, fantastic, brilliant: Gelsenkirchen’s opera gives itself a fabulous Zauberflöte as a birthday presentThe Musiktheater im Revier has many reasons to celebrate its fiftieth birthday. With the new production of Die Zauberflöte it has an additional good reason. The première audience might even have experienced the most beautiful Mozart production the theatres in the region momentarily have to offer. [...] a production, which enjoys being clownish and shows its characters in an original way, without blowing too much incense into the „sacred portals“. The three ladies for example, envoys of the queen of the night. They conquer the stage as three rabid crones. Three delightful grannies, who don’t hesitate for a single moment to swing their handbags, when an orchestra musician refuses to hand over his flute. Or Papageno: Dijkema shows him in line with the tradition, because of his glockenspiel, however, his appearance is sensational. The libretto calls it a “small jewel” and one of the brilliant jokes of the magic fairy tale teller Dijkema is, that he makes Papageno carry an incredibly enormous parcel on his back with the superscript “Caution! Magic!”. Inside is a man as old as Methuselah, who works with a winder... This Zauberflöte is not trying to pretend that this opera, which has been suffering from dramaturgical weaknesses since its birth, is highbrow. The world of Sarastro and his priests is not a republic of savants, just as little as it is without flaws. The hunting society of the high priest (as is actually stated in the libretto) shoots down the absurd animals, who were tamed by the music just moments before. And whiplashes on the sole of the foot, a valid currency in the palace of the savants, are by no means given without lust. But that’s how it is in Mozart’s most enigmatic opera: Evil is not just evil, good is not just good. This is being told throughout the evening, with an enormous amount of fantasy. You sit in your chair, are astounded and let yourself be overwhelmed by the storytelling – a story about impulses, desire, the search of meaning, loneliness. How Dijkema is manoeuvring the initiation rituals to the limits of a Copperfield show (including coffin and smoke), without degrading the story – a masterstroke.

Johannes KoppsDer Westen20 December 2009

“funny and existentially serious”

A convincing ensembleThe young Dutch stage director and set designer Michiel Dijkema tells the story as “theatre within theatre”, thus clearly relating to Gelsenkirchen’s theatre itself. His set is a continuation of the auditorium based on basic principals of a baroque theatre with vanishing point. The walls are repeated in identical colours and materials, getting smaller and smaller – the red curtain is repeated over and over again. Every time the curtain rises, it reveals a new red curtain. [...] What’s behind the final red curtain neither the audience nor the characters ever get to see. [...] The theatre shows a path to self-knowledge. Dijkema’s rich, clever, highly imaginative, funny and existentially serious staging is a respectful gesture to the theatre, but it also demands a lot of the theatre. What more can you wish for as inauguration of the theatre on the occasion of its fiftieth birthday and its reopening.

Ulrike GondorfDeutschlandradio Kultur19 December 2009

“unleashed fantasy”

Fantasy unleashedMuch more scenes full of “wit, satire, irony” flare up on this stage, which is designed with a sense of absurdity [...] Michiel Dijkema stakes very consequently on unleashed fantasy, which this in many regards inconsistent opera can set free – with those “in search of meaning”, with stage directors, singers, designers – and with the audience! [...] This causes a permanent “need” to reflect, to understand new surprising constellations, to deviate from the reception-routine. And the question about meaning? Mon dieu, what more can theatre do than to set free swamped fantasy?! On Dijkema’s meaningful-detailed set the characters wear costumes full of interpretational possibilities [...] the whole ensemble is acting with a great deal of verve and is vocally convincing. On the occasion of the fiftieth birthday of the Musiktheater im Revier this Zauberflöte is a great promise for the future. The production is referring to the “spirituality” of the theatre – however without wanting to be a “moralising institution”. At the end of this so provoking “show” it seems, as if the “message” got across and reached the audience: Long live fantasy!

Franz R. StukeOpernnetz20 December 2009

“theatrical cornucopia [...] dazzling”

Theatre, nothing but theatre!A kind of theatrical cornucopia, from which the style of puppet theatre can appear just as well as grand humanistic ideas. Colourful and sometimes acute, full of surprises and from time to time an impertinence. Thus at least, this opera presents itself in Gelsenkirchen. Dijkema and his costume designer Claudia Damm want to tell the opera in line with the tradition, in which this work is rooted, and yet, at the same time, tell it from a completely new perspective. But first of all they want to surprise. Surprise at times when you least expect it. [...] Without further ado a flute is taken away from an orchestra musician to serve as the magic flute, and the glockenspiel is professionally packed in a cardboard box with the superscript “Caution! Magic!” – inside hides a mini-celesta including its enormously dusty player. [...] In any case lots of dazzling theatre, which is fresh in many ways and by no means worn-out.

Stefan SchmöeOMM – Online Musik Magazin20 December 2009

“magically [...] ironically refracted”

Coloraturas with KalashnikovThe Musiktheater im Revier succeeds in a Zauberflöte with fantastically popular magicAs his own designer, Dijkema illustrates Schikaneders suburban farce with magically colourful images. [...] The temple cult of Sarastro is ironically refracted by Dijkema. Here the dialectic of Enlightenment is part of the staging. The initiation rituals which Tamino and Papageno have to endure, are not without repression. And the prisoners in Monostatos’ dungeon show traces of torture. In between we see Sarastro and his men as a hyper-Bavarian hunting club. This is a delight for the eye. And it adds to the advantages of this production, that it smartly freshens up the lower couple, without terrible clichés.

Bernd AulichRecklinghäuser Zeitung22 December 2009

“an exceptional evening”

May the work be ambitious – but please keep distanceFinally the highlight of this ambitious reopening programme with Die Zauberflöte. [...] A Tamino who is almost struck by his Pamina portrait; a Papageno, whose excursions into the auditorium create special hilariousness and a queen of the night in fantasy look with imitation gun. With great joy of acting the three ladies as crazy wrinklies, equally witty the three boys as dwarfs with full beards, floating down from the drawing floor. So Gelsenkirchen-baroque-like they only play Mozart at the Musiktheater im Revier. [...] Altogether, by city theatre standards, this was an exceptional evening.

Georg BeckNeue Musikzeitung18 January 2010

“plenty of fun”

The dark red curtain was drawn to the sound of the wind chords: the assembled priests wore outfits of exactly the same colour, implying a kind of unity between them and the orchestra. Michiel Dijkema debunked everything that appeared him to be too reverential – a principle to which he adhered throughout his production. [...] There was plenty of fun, but the pedagogical elements of the work were also dealt with quite seriously.

Christoph ZimmermannOperaApril 2010

“It doesn’t get any cheaper.”

Dijkemas approach to place the work in the tradition of the Viennese suburban theatre and magical pieces, is more than legitimate. He offers a lot for the eye, colorful masquerades and vivid movement. Not a single moment boring is boring. [...] Without the Masonic background the piece remains incomprehensible. [...] It doesn’t get any cheaper.

Pedro ObieraAlsfelder Allgemeine20 December 2009

“ironic lightness [...] blissful”

With such ironic lightness, such bubbly weightlessness we have not seen the Magic Flute for a long time [...] The ensemble sings more than respectable - and acts like hardly any other house of this size [...] Three blissful hours of Mozart overflowing with staging ideas.